A provision in the government’s new firearm bill that mandates lifetime background screening in firearm licence applications will apply even to long-time gun owners renewing their licences, Commons committee scrutiny of the legislation has revealed.

The little-known aspect to one of the most popular elements of the bill among gun-control advocates sparked the only major difference between Liberal MPs and the opposition Thursday as they debated amendments before sending the legislation back to the Commons for review and debate ahead of a final House vote.

Alberta Conservative MP Blaine Calkins, speaking in support of a Conservative amendment proposing limiting the lifetime review to only first-time licence applicants, warned Liberal MPs if the measure goes ahead as planned, a prominent Canadian such as a First Nation leader or a military veteran will invariably “get caught up” in the screening and lose their licence.

“I just told my colleagues across the way to be aware that when this bill comes into force, without this amendment, there will be some prominent Canadian who’s been a lifetime firearms owner that will get caught up in a check and be denied their licence and it will make a headline,” Calkins said as he spoke in favour of the amendment proposed by another Alberta MP on the committee, former Medicine Hat police inspector Glen Motz.

“And those responsible for not accepting this amendment will have to wear it,” Calkins said.

“I can see a First Nations leader, or a veteran or somebody like that getting caught up in this, this is a very reasonable amendment, I’m not sure why it’s not being accepted.”

Calkins did not explain during his intervention why he cited First Nations leaders or veterans for his argument, but he later elaborated on what he meant.

In an interview, Calkins described the scenario of a lifetime background screening being conducted on a gun owner who has had a licence for 50 years uncovering a 30-year old discretion. “They lose their licence, they have to sell their firearms and they have to go through that entire process to get the licence back that they’ve had for 50 years; it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“Imagine a veteran, or somebody who gets caught up in something like this or imagine a prominent First Nations chief or a family member, or something like that, this is what’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” he said.

Asked whether he thought many licence holders would lose their right to a gun licence with lifetime screening, Calkins replied: “There will be the odd one; I don’t know.”

Replying to questions from Calkins and Motz, an RCMP expert on hand with other government officials to answer technical questions about the bill said application of the lifetime screening provision would include screening for non-criminal considerations, such as mental health issues or relationship breakdowns.

Under existing law, licence applicants are obligated disclose any of those issues for the previous five-year period. A chief firearms officer reviewing the application is required to consider incidents or conditions further back in time, but only if they are aware of it.

“The amendment that you are putting forward right now would therefore — for somebody who is renewing their application, on personal history questions about previous incidents — would exclude things that may have occurred six years ago, as an example,” said Rob O’Reilly, director of Firearms Regulatory Services at the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program.

“There would be an impact in terms of what would be disclosed,” said O’Reilly.

The Liberal majority on the committee for Public Safety and National Security did not debate the amendment, and rejected it when the vote was called.